The Big Christmas event

WEEKS 9-12

Well, after spending a week in Kigali, I was going back to my village to prepare the proceedings for the Christmas function and it was also payday.
As I have mentioned previously, any trip back to the village using the public transport is never free of problems and frustrations.. well this time was no different!
But this time it was taking the motorbike from Muganza to my little cottage.. The motorbike gear stick broke, just outside of Muganza so I decided to get off and start to walk. It doesn’t matter where you are in Rwanda, there are always people and they are always walking somewhere.. you can never be lonely in this place! Even in my little cottage, there are constantly people coming in and out.. relatives, friends.. etc..
After another long journey it was nice to be back home again…
It was good to see everyone here and to find out what has been happening since I’ve been away. I bought a pump in Kigali, so I could pump up the rugby balls as I will be teaching the neighbouring school rugby. (I even have a demonstration DVD, which is nice as my rugby knowledge is fairly low!)
Today is payday at the school, which is always a long drawn out affair as there are now 90 people working on site. Every two weeks, there seems to be more and more people that are working.. new ones start, some leave.. I think over the 6 weeks, I have paid nearly 150 different people. Very hard to keep up with it all!
While I was at school, the rains decided to come and it was absolutely torrential, I saw more rain in that 2 hours then I have seen in Australia for a long time. (Relentless rain, but at least it will fill up our two new water tanks)
The progress of the school has been very pleasing with all the walls nearly finished, so soon they can start installing the roof. It will be nice to finish the majority of work before school starts, as it will be a lot more difficult to operate when you have hundreds of children running around.
I support the number of workers, as long as there is good progress of the construction and as I have previously mentioned it creates employment for the local area.
I would also like to have as much done as possible, especially with the Christmas party coming up in 2 weeks. Further to this, I have managed to get contacts for the largest newspaper and radio in Rwanda. I have spoken to two respective journalists (from New Times and Contact FM) who are both keen to come along and cover the event. (If they do its another matter, but at least they believe that the event is newsworthy)
There are some times here that I do get very frustrated, but there are moments like this evening that put a smile on my face from ear to ear. I was walking back from teaching English at the school, and all I could hear was the sound of children singing and a drums banging. When I walked around the corner I saw about 30 odd children who were singing and dancing with one of them using a makeshift drum. They were laughing uncontrollably, and they didn’t have a care in the world. As soon as I joined in the celebrations they were laughing and smiling even more. (Who would have thought that a year ago I would be dancing in a remote part of Rwanda with some kids from a village- the beauty of life, you never know what is around the corner)
The looks on their faces were priceless, and they are the reason I am continually motivated to give them the best quality of life available and the opportunities that I was given.
In other news, we have built our very own home-made gym at our cottage set using wood, a bag of dirt and a pulley. It is another example of how resourceful people are here, and I must admit it works quite well. I had a good workout yesterday, and this morning I woke up a little sore across my chest, so something must have worked.
I am still having troubles with my motorbike; I just can’t believe how easily some people can lie to your face. (Especially those that work in business) I threaten the manager that I want my money back (yes, I had to pay for it upfront before I even had the bike- not exactly the smartest move to make!) and he told me to speak to the owner. So, I got on the phone and threaten him that I want my money back if you don’t give me my motorbike. I also gave him a whole guilt routine, and for one of the few times in my life I was a little angry.. just get really frustrated how they treat me!
In response, he said I can have it in two days now so it went from next week to getting it on Wednesday. This is just an example of how they operate here in the business world, and you have to constantly harass them otherwise you get nowhere! Of course, at the time of writing this, I still haven’t got my bike so time will tell.. apparently, they prioritise the government first and I must come right at the bottom of the list!
I have just returned from my meeting with the Mayor of the district – Felix. I had to make the long journey to his office (about 1.5 hours) for a meeting to discuss ABANA’s activities and also to invite him to the Xmas function next week. We had a very open and honest meeting, as we discussed the project at Rugerero, the Christmas function and our thoughts on education and health in the district. He also gave me the idea that not only should I give the children clothes and food on the day, I should also present them with one year’s health insurance for 2008. Apparently, for 1000 FRW (90p/$2.00) a child is insured to use the health centres for a whole year at no cost to the parents. This is a small sum of money, and a wise investment for their children and without your health you haven’t got much else in this world. Depending on the fundraising efforts for the day, I would like to pursue this and get the Deputy Mayor to announce it on the day. (Unfortunately, the Mayor is unavailable on the day) Especially, as media will be present it would be a real successful story for ABANA . I also spoke with the Education Director for the area, who will also be attending on the day. I have also been asked to participate in the Joint Action Development Forum (chaired by the Mayor) that will set the 2008 and onwards strategy for the district in key areas including health and education. The key decision-makers of the district will be attending this forum, and I see it is an ideal networking opportunity for ABANA and myself. The Mayor also gave me some possible projects that ABANA could be involved with in the future, focussing on education and health. I left the meeting with him very impressed by his stance on a few issues I have in the area and what his future plans are as Mayor. (He actually has only been in the position for less than 2 months!)
A little back I was given a donation of 2 rugby balls to teach rugby to students in my area, with the end goal to actually have a side in this district. Well, today I took my first rugby class and it ended up to be very successful. I took English class first in Muganza and then all the students from class joined me in their first ever rugby lesson. I had about 40+ students running around madly at the beginning and even though I had someone to translate for me, it was very difficult. I have had no experience in teaching rugby but I do know the basic rules and my goal is to get them playing touch rugby. By the end of the class, I had the students understanding the rules of touch and some of them were naturally gifted at the sport. I am going to give the balls to the local high school as a donation and I will try and take a few classes in the new year. I had the whole village, watching me as I was trying to teach them rugby.. they all seemed to enjoy it and I have promised them that I will take them for another lesson Saturday.
Well, today I attended the Joint Action Development Forum to get an idea of what the mayor has planned for 2008. I didn’t realise that is a new development and firstly we had to elect the committee, I was going to nominate ABANA but I realised in the meeting that language is going to be a barrier. I also made a ‘schoolboy Africa error’, I was told the meeting starts at 10am so me being my punctual self got there at 9.45am. I had a look around Kibeho (made famous for the sighting of the Virgin Mary- people from all around the world come here to pray!) and then I went to the meeting. I was the third person there and was thinking that something was up as it was 10am and the mayor wasn’t there or the other organisers. No, people don’t start turning up until 11am of course and it was just me that was shocked that this meeting was behind time. Of course, we were on ‘African time’ and 10am really means 11am .. I should have known that! I felt really uncomfortable because the Mayor asked if the meeting could be in English but I said no I would prefer Kinyarwanda because its not fair that 1 out of 150 cant speak the language. I was the only muzungo there and I said I could understand through my new translator friend (I met him in the morning- he was also on-time). The idea of the meeting was to form a committee of NGOs, Government and the private sector in the area of development in education and health. It will be a central governing body, that could work in theory but knowing how these organisations work everyone has their own agenda and will look out for their own interests. Time will tell, but at least ABANA was given an opportunity to explain the work we are doing in the district and our future plans. Afterwards, I went to the neighbouring village to support a muzungo friend of mine that was organising an event on HIV education and prevention with workshops, video, prizes etc. They had no problem with pulling a crowd as it was hectic… not used to seeing so many people in the villages of South Rwanda.
Oh yeah, I still haven’t received my motorbike.. and I think the manager has managed to pull out every lie in the book to me and my patience is wearing thin! I will be paying him a visit on Monday, when I get back to Kigali.
The big week of my Christmas event has arrived and I have a million things going on in my head. I arrived in Kigali to buy the last minute Christmas stuff for the children. I have bought a tree, heaps of decorations, colourful ribbon and rope so I can secure the area as I know every man and their dog will be in attendance.
I also have a new shirt for the occasion, a nice little blue number of course so everything is set for the big day on Thursday. Oh yeah, I also have some very big news…wait for it.. yes I finally have my motorbike. It has been sent to the village and I’m still in dis-belief as I actually gave up on it!
Well, I left on Thursday morning from Kigali to head back and ensure everything is progressing for the big day tomorrow. I have called upon every favour from the ‘guy upstairs’ to ensure we have a nice and sunny day as I have no protection for the rain.
It’s late on Thursday evening and I have just arrived at the school, to see the area has been cleared and the food has started to be prepared. (Today I should add is very wet and cold so I’m very nervous about the weather tomorrow)
I went home confident though that everything that is possible to be finished has been done and we were prepared for the big day.
I must admit I didn’t have the best sleep last night as I had too much going on in my head about tomorrow. I awoke and the first thing I did was pull the curtains open to see the weather. (Well, thankfully at this point the weather gods are smiling at me)
I quickly got dressed and headed to the school to start all the preparations for the big day. On the walk up there, everyone I walked past was smiling and laughing and generally looking forward to the big day. This was probably the ‘biggest’ day the area have experienced in a long time if not ever.. I must admit even on the walk up there, I was getting ‘goose bumps’ just thinking about the day.
I arrived at the school, very happy that everything has been progressing well as we started decorating the area to get into the ‘Christmas’ spirit.
The ‘crowd’ have started arriving very early around the school, with most of them not invited but just coming along with the hope of trying to get in. (This is why I have employed 4 security guards and put a fence around the area)
As the preparations were going along, we were having one issue after another and I had every person coming up to me telling me how I should be organising it. (It goes to show it doesn’t matter where you are in the world- there is always ‘too many chiefs and not enough Indians’)
We were having issues with power (we have to use a little generator) as it wasn’t working and due to this I wasn’t able to show my presentation that I’ve been working on over the last few weeks. I also had issues trying to find the journalists from Kigali, the Deputy Mayor and not having enough seats for the area. I was also told that I needed to change the proceedings for the day, as you need to have lunch last in Rwanda. Everything that was in my control was finished, so I rushed up home to get changed into my new clothes to make my grand entrance on my new motorbike.
Thankfully, the sun was still shining as I left my house with my fingers crossed that it was going to be a successful day.
I arrived at the school to see how everyone was going. (I had about 30+ people assisting me that were busily running around doing last minute preparations for the day)
It was now 2.30pm, so we were running behind schedule but the Deputy Mayor still was not present so we couldn’t start until she turned up. (this was after I asked her to turn up early to discuss the health care that ABANA will now be covering for the children)
Then I heard the car of the Mayor, so we could officially open the day and to bring the parents and children into the formal area. As I mentioned before, many more people came to the school then were actually invited. So, with a team of people we tried to let the invited guests come in and keep everyone out… well this was easier said than done as they all surged forward trying to get in. Nothing comes easy in Rwanda, and I may have put in place some plans to help this but is a poor and desperate area so they were determined to come inside. (This did sadden me as I would have liked to have invited every person in the district to come along to feed them but I have to draw the line somewhere!)
Well, with the help of the great team of people that I have working with me, we managed to get everyone in and seated as the Executive of the area officially opened the proceedings.
Whenever I have been to Rwandan events they love to have many speeches and they tend to be very long and today was no different. The Principal of the school was the MC for the day, and even though I question his accountability as a Principal he does a fantastic job as MC. During the entertainment he was working the crowd, getting them to clap and cheer to get them into the day.
It was now my turn to do my speech in front of 400+ people plus about 1000 around the area watching the proceedings. This would be nerve –racking experience as it was but today I decided that I would do my speech in Kinyarwandan (the local language). Remember that I have only been here for just over 2 months but I thought today was all about the children and they don’t speak English. So for once I wanted to be able to communicate to them in their language and it would create a laugh for everyone. Well, I was more nervous than I thought at the start but once it was rolling I was fine and I was playing off the laughter as everyone clapped every word I said.. (as most of you know I don’t mind the odd bit of attention!)
After I finished I got a raucous applause from everyone as they were seemingly impressed by my Kinyarwandan (I think they were just being nice!) I was so glad that I took the challenge to do it in Kinyarwandan, and the journalists wanted a copy of my speech. Just goes to show, ‘fortune favours the brave’. ( I think I will never have any nerves for any further public speaking I do in the future)
The weather by this stage was looking very ominous, so I was getting very nervous.
We then had my friend Jane, who is volunteering in a village about 1.5 hours away sing a Christmas carol for me. She is among other talents an Opera singer so she sang ‘Silent Night’. The whole crowd was mesmerised by this ‘muzungo’ singing in
English, with this huge voice coming from this petit girl. I myself was suitably impressed by her singing and it definitely got me into the ‘Christmas spirit’. Well, it had come to the part of the day that everyone was here for the giving of the clothes to the children.
In the end we had 156 children, who were chosen due to them coming from very poor families and some have no families at all. I had labelled every single piece of clothing so it should have been a formality in distributing them out to the children.
I asked the Mayor to present the clothes to the children, so we could get some good photos for the journalists and I thought she would want to be involved.
We only did a few children as it was getting late and we needed to start lunch. (Plus the rain was looking all the more ominous as the day progressed)
We decided to use one of the classrooms to distribute the clothes to the children and their parents. Well, I have never seen anything like it as some of the helpers tried to read their names out but they kept on surging forward and trying to grab them out of their hands. In the end, we gave out a sample of the clothes and said to come back tomorrow to distribute the rest of them as it was just impossible. (Once again, nothing is easy in this country)
We had finished the formal proceedings and lunch was served to the 400 people, this was a huge job and I can’t thank the many people who assisted on the day to make it possible. The smiles on the faces of the children and the parents made all the hardships leading up to the day and today worth it. They were all very hungry (me included) as we didn’t have lunch until around 5pm. As the adults had finished eating (the children are served last in Rwandese culture) the rain had started so we had to quickly take everything away as it ‘bucketed’ down. Thankfully, the invited guests were leaving anyway. We then feed the children in one of the classrooms as it was raining outside and they were so hungry. Afterwards, I got a section of them to get together to take a photo with all their new clothes and it was probably one of the proudest moments of my life.
I also explained to everyone that thanks to the money raised ABANA will now pay for the health care for the 156 children for 2008. This was received by huge smiles and applause.
I then distributed some sweets I had on me to the children and the formal proceedings had finished. The Deputy Mayor, journalists and invited guests were all very impressed by the day and I think it has left a mark with them and has firmly put ABANA on the map in Rwanda.
The day didn’t exactly go to plan as I imagined it but ultimately we achieved what we wanted to and I couldn’t have done it without the help of my ‘posse’. They worked tirelessly hard throughout the day and I can’t thank them enough.
Afterwards, a few of us stayed around in one of the dark classrooms finishing off the remaining beers and just relaxing and enjoying the moment as the day was officially over.
We left the school that evening with the knowledge that somehow we managed to pull it off and everyone should be very proud of their efforts.
Me personally, well I was very happy with how it all went (considering this was Africa) and I would definitely do it all again.
It’s amazing that my idea that I had at 4 in the morning one day had become reality and it just shows that anything is possible in this world if you put your mind to it.
Of course this event would never have been possible without the generous donations that were sent to me from all around the world. I thank all of you and most of all the children of my ‘village’ thank you.
I am now back in Kigali and waiting anxiously for the paper to arrive to see my article.. very exciting…
It is Christmas eve here, and Rwanda is busily trying to get into the ‘Christmas spirit’. After a busy 3 months, I’m looking forward to having a restful couple of weeks.
I wish everyone a safe and happy Merry Christmas and New Years!
Noheli Nziza!!!
Cheers Troy